News

RetroPod shut down by Sony

By Dennis Lloyd ● Thursday, October 14, 2004

RetroPod, makers of iPod cases from the shell of vintage Sony Walkmans shuts down at the request of Sony. “Your use of casings for such a purpose is a clear infringement of the SONY and WALKMAN marks because it is deceptive. Consumers likely will be misled and deceived into believing that Sony is somehow connected with the iPod personal stereo when in fact it is not.” Customers with unfilled orders will be refunded through PayPal.

Comments

1

Ohhh, kinky, kinky Sony. Why don’t they just let them make there RetroPods and as a counterattack make iPod cases you put your HD Walkman in? Maybe there just pissed of because noone thinks that HD Walkman and PSP will be good.

Posted by Orbulon in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 11:56 AM (CDT)

1

In other news, Coca-Cola sues Girls Scouts of America for making bird feeders out of 2-liter bottles.

Posted by Nagromme in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 12:07 PM (CDT)

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Yeah lets all shoot ourselves in the foot. Retropod was probably the only way for sony to make any money off of iPods or the music download industry.

Posted by dumb in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 12:20 PM (CDT)

1

Whatever. This is such a non-event. Must be a slow day in any REAL news judging from the stuff like the announcements of that silly laserpointer and flashlight attachment story.

*Yawn* Wake us up when something of REAL significance happens.

Posted by jinzo-ningen in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 12:36 PM (CDT)

1

Maybe there’s an iPod site around that only publishes occasional big news, and doesn’t have updates on most days. That would save trying to figure out from the headline whether a story is important to me or not.

j/k :)

Posted by Nagromme in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 12:53 PM (CDT)

1

Or maybe information that is actually significant.

I guess there are some who might actually want to know such things since the only way they can feel better about themselves by taking meaningless potshots at others. I’d have thought most iPod users be above that sort of thing, given Apple’s pricepoint and marketing strategy, but it seems I was wrong.

Posted by jinzo-ningen in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 12:58 PM (CDT)

1

Really slow news day. RetroPod went under in early September (note the fufillment date for refunds on the site).

1

Posted by jotwimble in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 2:04 PM (CDT)

1

I just KNEW that there had to be a use for my crappy old Walkman…

As for the sensitivity of certain posters earlier in this thread, all I can say is I’m glad my 4G’s HD isn’t as jittery as what I’m reading around here.

Posted by buffalowings in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 3:46 PM (CDT)

1

Hehehe…as if to prove the point….

Posted by jinzo-ningen in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 4:29 PM (CDT)

1

jizzo-ningman
if you don’t want to read articles that you don’t consider REAL, why are you reading such articles, let alone posting in the comments section.
no one is forcing you to be here. no one is forcing you to read any of this. iPodlounge finds stories related to iPod, posts them with a convenient headline and a short introductory paragraph so that you know what you are going to be reading about.
If you don’t want to read stuff that isn’t REAL, don’t read it. It’s really easy.

Posted by Harrison in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 5:02 PM (CDT)

1

That sucks. He really did a ton of work, and spent a lot of money and time on this. Sony is full of baloney, as usual. “Deceptive?” Yeah, I can see where the confusion could come from, if you had an IQ below 23. Lord…

Posted by Joshdude in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 5:13 PM (CDT)

1

I HATE SONY.

Posted by SONY HATRED in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 6:07 PM (CDT)

1

That is LAME as all get out for Sony to worry about this. And, I think, completely baseless. It’s not as if he’s changing the OUTSIDE of the walkman to make it look bigger, it just happens that an iPod fits inside a walkman.

Given their logic, would they sue me for carrying my old tape walkman around listening to a tape? How would anyone on the street know the difference.

Hell, there would probably be some people who thought they were making a comeback…

Posted by suretapeplayasarebig in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 6:27 PM (CDT)

1

Fu*k Sony. It may seem like a stupid thing to all of us, but for the owner of RetroPod, who put a lot of work into the business, it’s quite sad that he has to be bullied.

Posted by Awesome-O in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 9:33 PM (CDT)

1

Thank you. I really like all the iPod news i can get. It’s all very interesting. I know there isn’t always big, news, but atleast the people here care enough to post news everyday on the site. Some new big iPod product isn’t coming out everday, so ii’s nice to hear about “everything (else) iPod”. :-)

Posted by TymeFlame in Irvine, CA on October 14, 2004 at 10:54 PM (CDT)

1

jinzo-ningen - some news is relevant to different people, this news is obviously relevant to the people who wanted to buy this case.

the site cant only be targeted at you i am afraid

Posted by bryan in Irvine, CA on October 15, 2004 at 5:12 AM (CDT)

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It is all from the lawyers. They got paid big bucks for doing little things.

Posted by Gary Young in Irvine, CA on October 15, 2004 at 8:20 AM (CDT)

1

Actually, sony has no legal basis since copyright law protects reverse engineering